The following is from Masayuki Takayama's serial column entitled "Corona Diplomacy," which appeared in the 7/9 issue of Shukan Shincho.
The serial column of him and Ms.Yoshiko Sakurai bring the weekly Shincho to a successful conclusion.
After all, I subscribe to Weekly Shincho to read the papers of both people.
This article also proves that Masayuki Takayama is the only journalist in the postwar world.
This article also proves that Masayuki Takayama is one and only journalist in the post-war world.
Looking at the history of iron manufacturing, I am deeply envious of Europe, where so many different countries have come together.
The ironmaking process first developed in Sweden with the development of the charcoal blast furnace and spread to other European countries.
However, what could be done was pig iron with high carbon content.
It was a form of decarburization by blacksmiths beating it.
Because of how to reduce carbon, the British used hotter coal than wood charcoal.
In the 18th century, Sir A. Derby invented coke, which paved the way for the the low-carbon iron mass production.
Many iron bridges were built, but they were not strong enough, and three of them fell.
Couldn't it make steel with a lower carbon content?
H. Court of England developed a paddle method for stirring molten pig iron in an Open Hearth furnace.
Siemens of Germany and Martin of France tried to make steel by pumping hot gas into the Open Hearth Furnace.
H. Bessemer of England invented the Bessemer converter furnace, which burned pig iron with coke and hot air and turned it into steel.
Countries have copied it.
It has found that coke can also be made from anthracite coal to get a lot of impurities other than carbon.
It was a significant reason why the anthracite coal-producing regions, China, Vietnam, and India, were colonized.
European countries competed for ironmaking technology in this way in the mid-19th century, around the time of Japan's Meiji Restoration.
Japan also has a neighboring country, China, and Korea.
Isabella Byrd, who visited there, records that they competed with each other based on dirtiness.
They were not a friendly competitor in iron manufacture.
Japan was on its own because it had no choice.
Clues were leaked from Nagasaki's Dejima Island and the Dutchman Huguenin's "Cannon-Casting Method."
Shimazu Nariakira and Oshima Takato of the Nambu clan attempted to build a charcoal blast furnace.
The shogunate and the Mito, Choshu, and Nabeshima clans built reverberatory furnaces.
However, most attempts over the Meiji Restoration failed.
The Bakufu's Nirayama reverberatory furnace was also able to make bronze cannons at best.
However, Oshima's Kamaishi blast furnace, where good local iron ore was found, managed to produce low-carbon iron.
The Meiji government added Oshima to the Iwakura delegation and sent him on a tour of Europe's ironmaking industry.
In 1898, Japan, which had fought the Sino-Japanese War with foreign-made weapons, once again realized that "iron is a nation" (Bismarck).
Soon after, construction of the government-run Yawata Steel Works began.
The plant purchased coal blast furnaces, Siemens open-hearth furnaces, and Bessemer converters from abroad, and under the guidance of German engineers, the plant was built to produce iron and steel.
They assembled it and put it on fire.
However, no matter how many times they tried, they could not get it right.
The government dismissed the Germans and entrusted everything to Japanese engineers who had cultivated their skills in Kamaishi and Nirayama.
They remodeled the furnaces, selected iron ore, and searched for high-quality coke at the same time.
High-quality coke was found on Takashima and Hashima Island off the port of Nagasaki.
Gunkanjima alias Hashima Island was soon electrified, and electric motors were used to excavate underwater mines.
Thus, in 1903, a year before the Russo-Japanese War, Japan succeeded in integrating pig iron into steel for the first time by Japanese hands.
In 1908, a lock gate-type harbor was built in Miike, clearing the tidal range of 5 meters in height.
It was designed by Takuma Dan of Mitsui Zaibatsu.
The locks were completed six years earlier than the locks on the Panama Canal in the U.S. and are still in operation today.
The spirit of the Meiji people, who built the foundation of Japan's technological powerhouse, was registered as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site, and a museum established.
However, the South Koreans complained that they should mention the Koreans, too.
Koreans were amid filth at that time.
Even if we tell them that it was before the annexation of Japan and Korea, they insist that they saw hell on Hashima Island.
There are indeed records of stowaway Koreans working on Hashima Island during the Showa period.
They were given housing and good wages, and there was a cathouse "Yoshidaya," which was exclusively for Koreans.
The truth doesn't matter.
The Korean government insisted that if the Japanese people are not covered with filth, they will have their World Heritage listing canceled.
At the time of its registration, South Korea told UNESCO Ambassador Satoji that it would favor the inclusion of a passage from 'Korean hard work.'
That's how they trap their opponent and plant disaster.
She should have known that.
It makes us angry when we go out with them.
For the sake of the Japanese people's mental health, diplomacy with this country should be reduced by 80% to Corona's level.
